Gaming Editor Kyle Orland joins us to talk about breathing life into characters.

Video game characters have been with us for decades, and many have become household names. Pac-Man, Mario, Samus, Sonic the Hedgehog—the list goes on. But what does it take to create a memorable character? Before graphics chips could support photorealism and sophisticated animation, how did game designers breathe life into a handful of pixels?

Ars Technica Gaming Editor Kyle Orland joins host Social Editor Cesar Torres and Ars Contributor Casey Johnston on this game-themed episode of the Ars Technicast. We revisit a time when a single square stood in as a character on the Atari 2600; we also look back at the 1990s, discussing characters from games like Metroid Prime, Final Fantasy VII, and Pokemon. We talk about how some characters disappointed us when the technology finally allowed them to speak in a game. We packed so many characters into this episode that we're already working on a future episode of the podcast dedicated entirely to video game villains.

Who makes your list of the most memorable game characters, and how far do you think game character development has come? Share your thoughts with us in the comments.

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Great points in the podcast regarding the idea of the main character's personality begin a reflection of the player's. The less a character does on its own, the more we as players can do and get pulled into the game itself.

Eh, sometimes maybe? Mario and Sonic back in their days seemed like they had plenty of personality, even with Super Mario RPG. Fast forward to Halo and all the thought they put into the setting (which isn't really even in the games) and the Chief still had the personality of a toaster. I honestly didn't care about anything that happened in Halo 3, it was just boring. Half Life sort of falls into that for me as well. A small pixelated sprite on a screen can get away with saying little and simply being animated and being granted personality through that.

We never hear Gordon and we never actually see him, instead the world's around those types of characters have things and plot in them, while the main characters are practically after thoughts. It would have been like playing Sonic 2 without ever actually getting to see what Sonic looked like when most of his personality was him tapping his foot at you when you stopped pressing buttons, then laying down and looking completely bored without the interaction. Making a character like that talk is like a talking mime, but the silent protagonist you only see on the box cover is like a mime you don't even get to see.

That might be a good thing in the case of mimes specifically but anyway...

Shepard on the other hand started as a good character but the entire Mass Effect concept was that it looked more like a movie when not shooting at things. I think it also helped that you picked the direction for the conversation but you didn't know exactly what they would actually say, so you had a reason to listen. Oddly the combat always seemed a bit stiff.

I thought Katarn from Dark Forces was sort of an interesting character. His first game couldn't give him much beyond still/text based animated cutscenes so there wasn't much to grab onto, but then in the next game they had a live actor and composite live/CGI cutscenes which really seemed to change things and then suddenly in the third he was voiced but we no longer used live action scenes. I remember being kind of disappointed at the time but I never felt they ruined the character and actually manged to create a character in Jedi Knight. While the end of live action actually made sense later.

Though Atari, Nintendo, and Sega had some great pre-voice era characters. Something about not really being able to hear the character forced them to try and convey their motivation visually. Which usually worked because the stories themselves had to do that to a point as well. I think you can be memorable, but mostly only when the character and story are engaging in the same way.

324 posts | registered Dec 17, 2008

Cesar Torres
Cesar is the Social Editor at Ars Technica. His areas of expertise are in online communities, human-computer interaction, usability, and e-reader technology. Cesar lives in New York City. Emailcesar.torres@arstechnica.com//Twitter@Urraca

THe front page picture is from the Atari 2600 Berserk right? Man I loved that game. Those old atari covers really told a story that got you into the game and the person you were supposed to be. You could imagine you were fighting a horde of evil robots or really getting Yar's Revenge. Even if the graphics were only 4 colors.

Choosing just one favorite game of all time is rough, I'd have to honestly say it's a two way tie:-Shining Force II on the Sega Genesis-Phantasy Star IV on the Sega Genesis

There's a Barcade in my hometown that I go to on occasion. For a quarter, I can play Joust, QBert, and Rampage! There's a total of about 20 old school arcades, but I always play those three whenever I go.

It helps that they have a great selection of beer on tap!

edit - Honorable mention to Smash Brothers on the SNES, fully four player on a big TV was very memorable

Great points in the podcast regarding the idea of the main character's personality begin a reflection of the player's. The less a character does on its own, the more we as players can do and get pulled into the game itself.

On one end of the spectrum, you've got the linear-plot RPGs, such as Final Fantasy VII. In its most player-agnostic moments, there are the pre-rendered CGI movies, where the player is forced to sit back and watch as the main character acts out a scene, regardless of the player's will.

All the way on the other end you've got the open-world sandboxes. Take Minecraft, for example. While it may not seem like there's anything more to the main character (Steve, right?) than a few hundred pixels and a penchant for cobblestone, one could absolutely weave a brilliant tale with this game.

I have to say I feel a tad betrayed by the lack of some characters that I would have included, but then again it was a 3-person panel in under an hour. Still I felt some serious discussion value was missed.

An honorable mention should have at least gone to the Wanderer from Shadow of the Colossus. That game is almost beyond compare with any games ever made to date.

I also would not have minded a bit of discussion about Master Chief and Cortana from Halo. Whether you are or are not a fan of that series of games, the amount of effort put into designing a world of back story between the two, and the franchise as a whole is absolutely irrefutable.

I haven't had a chance yet to listen, but I would be curious if Roger Wilco of Space Quest, Larry Laffer of Leisure Suit Larry are worthy of mention. Icons of Sierra's golden years. Seems to be a console-heavy slant in the comments so far though.

The Master Chief takes the top spot in my list, from the game that got me back into console gaming.

While I don't take issue with any of the characters discussed in the podcast, I totally agree with you on this one -- I'm not a gamer by any stretch of the imagination. I game casually, and I'm not particularly good, especially at first person shooters. But the depth of the story surrounding the Halo universe, and Master Chief in particular, turned me into a raving Halo fanboy and encouraged me to branch out and explore other console games. It literally doesn't matter to me how crappy I am and how long it takes me to get through particular levels or whatever -- I enjoy the mythology of the character so much I'll just keep trying.

Point of order! There WAS a Q*Bert cartoon! It was on "Saturday Supercade" on Saturday mornings (ABC, I believe...) They made him a high-school jock, and Coily and co. were like the leather-dressed biker punks. Another case of "the less they say, the better," IMO.

Great points in the podcast regarding the idea of the main character's personality begin a reflection of the player's. The less a character does on its own, the more we as players can do and get pulled into the game itself.

Eh, sometimes maybe? Mario and Sonic back in their days seemed like they had plenty of personality, even with Super Mario RPG. Fast forward to Halo and all the thought they put into the setting (which isn't really even in the games) and the Chief still had the personality of a toaster. I honestly didn't care about anything that happened in Halo 3, it was just boring. Half Life sort of falls into that for me as well. A small pixelated sprite on a screen can get away with saying little and simply being animated and being granted personality through that.

We never hear Gordon and we never actually see him, instead the world's around those types of characters have things and plot in them, while the main characters are practically after thoughts. It would have been like playing Sonic 2 without ever actually getting to see what Sonic looked like when most of his personality was him tapping his foot at you when you stopped pressing buttons, then laying down and looking completely bored without the interaction. Making a character like that talk is like a talking mime, but the silent protagonist you only see on the box cover is like a mime you don't even get to see.

That might be a good thing in the case of mimes specifically but anyway...

Shepard on the other hand started as a good character but the entire Mass Effect concept was that it looked more like a movie when not shooting at things. I think it also helped that you picked the direction for the conversation but you didn't know exactly what they would actually say, so you had a reason to listen. Oddly the combat always seemed a bit stiff.

I thought Katarn from Dark Forces was sort of an interesting character. His first game couldn't give him much beyond still/text based animated cutscenes so there wasn't much to grab onto, but then in the next game they had a live actor and composite live/CGI cutscenes which really seemed to change things and then suddenly in the third he was voiced but we no longer used live action scenes. I remember being kind of disappointed at the time but I never felt they ruined the character and actually manged to create a character in Jedi Knight. While the end of live action actually made sense later.

Though Atari, Nintendo, and Sega had some great pre-voice era characters. Something about not really being able to hear the character forced them to try and convey their motivation visually. Which usually worked because the stories themselves had to do that to a point as well. I think you can be memorable, but mostly only when the character and story are engaging in the same way.

The old Aura voice in Eve Online. She was never a corporal entity but probably had the same impact on me as the voice of STNG's computer has on trekkies/trekkers. I occasionally hear her voice when I daydream about the future of computers.

I am surprised Cloud and FF7 have not made this list yet. Before him, i never knew how ridiculously over sized a sword could be.

If you want to go back even further, I was also a huge fan of Fox McCloud from StarFox. Back in the SNES days, those graphics and game play blew my mind. You just knew he was a badass by the way all the other characters talked to him.

+1 CronoCloudLinkI played a few releases of the Romance of the Three Kingdoms series. Reading the back story on the characters drew me in to them and I wanted to unite China playing as them. Guan Yu for instance.

Point of order! There WAS a Q*Bert cartoon! It was on "Saturday Supercade" on Saturday mornings (ABC, I believe...) They made him a high-school jock, and Coily and co. were like the leather-dressed biker punks. Another case of "the less they say, the better," IMO.

EDIT: Bah. Wikipedia says CBS.

Thanks for clarifying. I looked it up on YouTube, and it looks TERRIFYING:

Most memorable game character for me is obvious. For saving my ass countless times in dire situations and providing some really funny dialogue. Just put a super-sledge in his hands and watch him whack your foes into sniping range...

Sorry for the Necropost, but I just listened to this podcast yesterday, and then a friend posted this link on FB today, and it reminded me of your guys observation that Pokeman was essentially dog/cockfighting.